The five founding families of Tumbleson have rotten roots that dig deep into the lives and loam of the land and everyone who lives off of it. Here's three of the families: who they are, what they've done, their woes, hopes, and seeds of corruption. I'll round out the last twoa nd everybody else in my next post.
The Golds - Shipping magnates, the pyramid's top
The Golds were able to get an early stranglehold on shipping out of Tumbleson County through use of force. Though the times and methods have changed, their control over navigation and logistics have not. Want to cross the river into Battiste Parrish? You'll deal with the Golds. Head down the river to New Orleans? The Golds again. Head North? Still the Golds. Just a few months ago they buried the patriarch, Miser Gold, with an ostentatious grave marker. Rumor is that the Old Miser's bones and hair aren't in his grave but in the statuary itself. His oldest son, Donny Gold, is mum on the matter. He's too concerned with keeping the family empire together.
In the light of day Beulla Gold is the picture of antebellum beauty and propriety, the young women all the men come 'round to court... until the sun sets. Often found down by the river, straddling gentlemen callers with maniacal frenzy and exposing them to unwholesome rites. Beulla's reputation stays unsullied outside the county after Donny pays hush money to the bruised and broken suitors, but around Tumbleson she's the scorpion to Donny's frog.
The Tagerts - Impoverished farmers, can't win for losing
Cursed by Elizabeth Harman's dying breath, Preacher Goodenough had his family line change their names to escape the shame and get out of the state. Unfortunately they couldn't all move away, and the county still remembers the evil done by that night. Regardless of their involvement, little sympathy is gleaned when the Tagerts' labor force moved North for better jobs. Since then their fields sit untended and rampant, this is exasperated by the sheriff's targeting of Tagert youth to send up to Parcell State Farm.
Pa Tagert hopes that marrying his eldest daughter, Jeanette, to Snake Hands Jimmy of the Fergusons will help alleviate some of their pressures.If they're kin, then Sheriff Horace Ferguson might stop scooping up his nieces and nephews-in-law on trumped up charges for Parcell's bleeding.
The Parcells - Failed ambitions, drowning hope
After the town of Nevermind failed, the Parcells only asset is the state incarceration contract. Convinced that Jimmy Copeland's treasure is buried in his fields, Bobby Parcell has a special work detail that excavates the surrounding contryside looking for treasure. Populated by prisoners being punished by the staff, they do harder labor and take fewer breaks. This is the third such group, the previous two found things buried in the fields and put to the gun to contain it.
The Tagerts' hard times have been to the Parcell's benefit, as the Golds now ship surplus Parcell State produce. The prison's harvest is used in other ways as well, one of the guards, Zeb Coryell, has taken to illegally leasing convict labor to the Tagerts. Usually healthy, unprocessed prisoners are siphoned off and sent to the Tagerts' place. Careful not to send the Tagerts any of their own kin, it's only a matter of time before the sheriff blows the whistle on the arrangement.
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